FOOTNOTES:
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana and Redhouse, James W. (James William), Sir
Source notes
121 Qur’ān, chap. lxxxv., the name of which literally means ”the Towers,” but is also applied to the Signs of the Zodiac. These Christians were the people of Nejrān in south-western Arabia; their persecutor Dhū-Nuwās, a Jew, king of Yaman, some time before Muhammed.
122 “Gardens beneath which rivers flow” is a frequently recurring expression in the Qur’ān. Some have special names.
123 See Qur’ān xxxv. 29: “Then we caused” thee “to inherit the Scripture.“
124 In Qur’ān ii. 132, Islām is termed ”God’s Baptism.“In ii. 156, and again in vii. 42, and xi. 21, “God’s curse” is invoked on sinners.
125 This is the story alluded to in Qur’ān lxxxv., quoted above. In traditions, Dhū-Nuwās was the name of the Jewish king of Yaman, who burnt the Christians of Nejrān in a fiery trench on their refusing to forsake their faith. The idol is imaginary; from Nebuchadnezzar.
126 Qur’ān xvi. 41; xxxvii. 72; xl. 76; speaks of the “Gates of Hell;” and a commentary to the last says they are held to be seven.
127 Abū-Jahl was a surname given by Muhammed to one of his most inveterate enemies of the Quraysh, killed at Badr. The word means: “Father of Ignorance,” and here indicates fleshly pride. He had formerly borne the surname of Abū-’l-Hakem, which means: Father of the Arbitrator.
128 In Qur’ān xxi. 69, is related the miracle by which Abraham was saved from the fire into which he was cast by Nimrod for his refusal to worship an image.
129 The word “Muslim,” whence the corruption Moslem, means, in Arabic, “one who acquiesces in the truth and will of God.” As such, Muslims have existed under every dispensation.
130 The creaking, leaky water-wheel, the Persian wheel, is well known in the East.
131 “Eye-binding” is a name for sorcery. The spectator is supposed to have his sight spell-bound, so as not to see what is really done.
132 ‘Ād, a pre-Semitic, perhaps Turanian, people in south-eastern Arabia, often mentioned in the Qur’ān. They refused to believe the prophet Hūd (supposed to be Heber), and were destroyed, lxix. 6-7, by an eight days’ tempest.
133 Qur’ān xxiii. 76, &c.
134 Qur’ān iii. 43.
135 Qur’ān vii. 139.
136 Kalīla and Dimna is the Arabic version of Pīlpāy’s fables.
137 This proverb is given in Freytag’s “Proverbia Arabica,” ii. p. 488, n. 278, as an answer from Muhammed to a foe twice made prisoner.
138 Equivalent to tethering a horse. Cromwell’s: “Keep your powder dry.“
139 The original says: ”The earner is God’s friend.“
140 The original has: ”Flees the snake, and meets a dragon.“
141 The words as given in the original, in Arabic, are not in the Qur’ān.
142 A cock that crows out of season, in the night.
143 Qur’ān xiv. 47.
144 ‘Azrā’īl, the angel of death, who takes men’s souls.
145 Solomon is related in the Qur’ān xxi. 81, and xxxiv. 11, to have possessed power over the wind.
146 In Qur’ān iii. 47, and viii. 30, God is styled ”the best of stratagem-makers.“
147 I do not find this proverb in Freytag’s ”Proverbia.“
148 Qur’ān ii. 15.
149 See Qur’ān xlviii. 29; lix. 8; and lxxiii. 20.
150 In Qur’ān ii. 29, the account of this is given. Compare Gen. ii. 19.
151 Was Satan this very old hermit? His successful temptation was the muzzle. The original says ”calf,“ where I have said ”babe;“—meaning Adam, when first created. Instructed by God, he named all things, which the angels were unable to do, and so were silenced.
152 The story of the dog of the Sleepers is told in Qur’ān xviii. 17-21.
153 The Persian name for the hare is ”ass-ear;“hence the pun.
154 The “hidden tablet” of God’s decrees; mentioned in Qur’ān lxxxv. 22.
155 At the “extreme lote-tree” in the highest heaven, on the night of the ascension. Gabriel could go no further. Muhammed went on, to God’s presence.
156 The word that signifies “compulsion” also means “reduction” in a surgical sense, and “algebra” mathematically.
157 “Burāq” is the name of the angelic steed on which Muhammed mounted to heaven in his night journey. Not found in the Qur’ān.
158 “The moon clave” in twain as a sign of the near approach of the day of judgment. Qur’ān liv. 1.
159 Muhammed’s name is put on most Muslim coins.
160 Muhammed is held to be the supplement of all the prophets.